


Simple Speculation

by Chaosprincess



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: F/M, Season 3 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-16
Updated: 2019-08-16
Packaged: 2020-09-02 00:34:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20267104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chaosprincess/pseuds/Chaosprincess
Summary: A small rewrite of a scene. Entrapta remembers Catra was having some trouble earlier, so she comes up with a simple solution to make her friend's life easier.





	Simple Speculation

“Lord Hordak?” Catra called tentatively, rounding the corner.

The feline Force Captain gasped and knelt to the floor as she realized that he was without his armor. As far as she knew, no one but Shadow Weaver had ever seen him in such a vulnerable state. For the sake of her life, she kept her eyes on the floor. 

She could hear Hordak’s growl as he returned to the spider-like machine that applied his armor piece by piece. 

“Why is Shadow Weaver still in the Fright Zone?” he demanded, while the machine did its work.

“She’s-- She’s my prisoner,” Catra stuttered, caught off-guard by the question.

“A dangerous one,” Hordak replied sharply. “I want her banished to Beast Island at once.”

“What?!” Catra objected, temporary outrage giving her the courage to bolt to her feet.

But Hordak’s subsequent glare and growl was enough to cow her into a more neutral stance and tone. Her eyes immediately dropped to the floor again.

“Lord Hordak, Shadow Weaver is still useful to us if we can get her to talk,” Catra argued. “She knows more about Etheria than anyone else.”

“And also about the Fright Zone. Have you considered the consequences if that information were to fall into the wrong hands?” Hordak demanded.

“That won’t happen,” Catra insisted, holding her ground. “Without the Black Garnet, she’s completely powerless. I can handle her-”

There was a sound of machinery powering down and suddenly they were plunged into darkness. Catra cringed, bracing herself for a loss of oxygen. Her sensitive ears picked up the swish and crunch of hair contorting. A sound that could only be associated with-

“Oh. Hi, Catra. What are you doing here?” Entrapta asked, pleasant and casual, as if she weren’t in the presence of the Horde’s leader. 

“I’m a Force Captain,” Catra replied, stating the obvious. “What are you doing here?”

“I’ve been integrating the First Ones’ tech we got from the Northern Reach into Hordak’s pre-existing portal mainframe,” Entrapta replied, obviously thrilled that Catra had asked. Despite being Hordak’s near constant companion these days, she hadn’t changed at all. It was almost a relief… “But it maybe slightly, completely overloaded the Fright Zone energy grid.”

As if to punctuate this statement, a large section of machinery overhead hissed and darkened. Meanwhile, Entrapta drifted easily to Hordak’s right side, as if she belonged there. Once again, Catra noted that there seemed not to be an ounce of fear in her, and Hordak did not seem the least bit perturbed by her close proximity. Of the storm of emotions this caused in her chest, Catra could only pick out the anger. Her jaw set behind her closed lips.

“So we’re gonna have to redesign that-” Entrapta continued to babble, as if the black out of the entire Fright Zone was a minor set back, barely an inconvenience.

“What Entrapta is doing does not concern you, Force Captain,” Hordak said with absolute authority.

Catra stared at them. She couldn’t understand how the tables had turned so thoroughly. How had this princess gained in mere days what she had spent her entire life trying to earn? The trust and respect of Lord Hordak. Why didn’t she have to live in fear, like Catra had? On top of everything else, the princess seemed utterly oblivious to the gift she had been blessed with. For Entrapta, it all seemed to be playtime, as if spending time with Lord Hordak was fun.

Entrapta, to her credit, seemed to notice that the atmosphere of their social encounter had soured. Her ruby eyes darted from Hordak to Entrapta and back several times, in an almost comical way, which Catra and Hordak both pointedly ignored.

“Oh. Were you two having a meeting?” Entrapta asked, almost mechanically, as if this were a programmed response to awkward social encounters. “Sorry, again. I guess I should be going.”

Her tentacle like hair reached up and she had already lifted herself above Hordak’s head when Hordak raised a hand to stop her. 

“No, you stay,” the Horde Leader said, marching closer to Catra.

Entrapta wore a concerned expression on her face as she set herself down.

_As if she cares,_ Catra huffed mentally, reminding herself that princesses were not to be trusted.

“You have two days to extract whatever information you can from your prisoner. Then you will banish her to Beast Island.”

“But-”

“Do you understand?” Hordak demanded, raising his voice and baring his fangs. “Or do I have to make myself understood?”

Catra shivered, knowing exactly what that meant. 

“No, Lord Hordak. I understand.”

“Good. Dismissed.”

Defeated, Catra slunk away towards the steps away from the throne. She was barely on the first step before Entrapta squawked and called out behind her. 

“Catra wait!” 

With a sigh, Catra turned back to her. 

“What now?”

“I was going to give this to you before we left the tundra, but we got a little busy,” Entrapta said with a giggle as she handed over a small flat screen. 

Catra took it and looked it over with extreme disinterest. 

“I already have a trackerpad,” she huffed, attempting to hand it back.

“Oh, Catra, you’re so silly! That’s waaaay more than a trackerpad!” Entrapta said with a snort. 

“What is it then?” 

“I would like to introduce you to Spex!” Entrapta announced grandly, before adding in a whisper. “It’s short for Speculate.”

“What does it do?”

“The real question is, what doesn’t it do?” Entrapta asked, raising her eyebrow in a way that made Catra… nervous. “I remembered that you were having some trouble keeping up with all of Shadow Weaver's files-”

“I- I wasn’t having any trouble!” Catra hurriedly corrected, glancing at Hordak who was standing behind them with a frown on his face.

“Well, even if you weren’t,” Entrapta brushed off, oblivious to the tension. “Spex is gonna make your life so much EASIER! This little baby can scan all of your documents and read them FOR you. All you’ll have to do is ask him a question about something you want to know from the files, and he’ll give you a concise and accurate answer, 97.5% of the time.”

“He can do that?” Catra asked, mildly intrigued. “What about the other 2.5% of the time?”

“If the answer is too complex for him to break down in less than 10 sentences, then he’ll simply pull up the entire document to read. The good news is that he'll still highlight the parts he thinks are the most relevant, so you should never have to read the whole document at all!” Entrapta said cheerfully, using her hair tendrils to swipe through existing documents. “Oh, and he recognizes duplicates of documents and deletes them, so feel free to scan one that you might think is already in there. It can’t hurt him. He can also do high level math, record conversations, record video, take pictures, video call, run strategy simulators, and predict basic behavioral patterns based on personal information. He’s got an excellent navigational system as well. Ooooh, and he can be password protected! If there's an error with him, be sure to send me the report. I can fix him his coding remotely. There's a beginner's manual to get you started, and an advanced manual for you want to do something really complicated!” 

“Entrapta this is…” Catra murmured, looking at the Princess of Dryl in awe. 

She hadn’t expected Entrapta to even remember that she had been having trouble with Shadow Weaver’s files, let alone that she would do anything about it! Even though she knew that Entrapta was kind of oblivious to everything that wasn't science, some ugly part of her deep inside had been whispering that the purple-haired princess had gone out of her way to take Catra’s place at Hordak’s side. But when she looked into those sparkling ruby eyes now, all she saw was excitement at sharing this device. Entrapta had taken the time to build something just for her. Time that she could have been spending cozying up to Hordak. 

“This is going to be really helpful to me. I don’t know what to say.” 

“I believe a ‘thank you’ is what is socially appropriate in this context,” Entrapta said, without an ounce of sarcasm.

Catra laughed in earnest and hugged her.

“Thank you, Entrapta,” she murmured with a rare hint of genuine affection. 

“You’re welcome!” 

Catra glanced in Hordak’s direction. The Horde Leader was scowling at the pair of them, clearly he wanted to tell them to hurry up, but something was holding him back. Wait, did he not want to scold Entrapta? Catra smirked at him coolly, as if she’d just been let in on a little secret. That this caused Hordak to scowl more only solidified Catra’s suspicions. She let Entrapta go.

“I have to go check on Shadow Weaver, laaaater Entrapta,” Catra purred, descending down the throne room stairs slowly and allowing her claw to comb through Entrapta's flowing purple hair as they parted ways.

“Byyyyyye, Catra, come visit sometime!” Entrapta called and waved. 

Catra was about halfway down before she heard the excited whispering of her technological genius of a friend. 

“We should be able to initiate our first test of the portal machine as soon as I rebuild the electrical grid.”

When she dared to turn back, she say Entrapta perched on the arm of the throne and Hordak leaning towards her, hanging on her every word. A wide smirk spread across Catra’s face as she looked at them.

Lord Hordak was smitten like a kitten. Over _Catra’s friend._ This could prove useful.


End file.
